The Warrior's Peace
by Guardira
Summary: A strange being with an even stranger past shrouded in darkness falls from space into the peaceful lands of Equestria. Now, he must defend himself and those who surround him from whatever means them harm. M for swears, violence & other themes. GildaxOC. Anthro character is present. Slightly AU but may stick for the most part.
1. Our story begins

**Greetings, surfers of the internet! Just a quick heads up to y'all, this is my FIRST story attempt ever, so please don't complain if it sucks. Also, I DO NOT own MLP FIM 'cause Hasbro does. But, I DO own my OC and things that aren't originally from MLP, so don't sue for lawyer powers are now ineffective on me, mwuhahaha! We all cool? Good! **

**Just remember to R&R the chapter once you've finished reading it.**

**Fun Fact: I DO listen to helpful feedback : )**

**Chapter 1**

This particular story begins in the vast yet seemingly void reaches of space, lit only by the billions upon billions of stars and occasional sun. However, to be more precise in terms of position, a little over ten light-years from Earth with several solar systems thrown in between. Drifting lazily through this practically empty region of the Milky Way, known as the 'Smuggler's Plight' cluster, was a ship that can be described as a grey, smoothed over, rectangular prism with two other prisms of similar shape but a third of its length protruding from its sides. Despite having two thirds the length of a standard football stadium back on Earth, the ship was extraordinarily manoeuvrable and was capable of accelerating to great speeds. The only visible defence system that could be identified on the craft however, is a dual barrelled, rotating energy cannon.

Inside the craft, somewhere roughly at the ship's midway, a darkened, masculine silhouette lay sprawled on his bedding, mildly snoring through the darkness of his sealed room. Suddenly, a loud siren similar to that of a submarine rang throughout the vessel, accompanied by the sudden activation of the ship's lights, illuminating the metallic, grey walls of the room. Shocked by the sudden loud noise and brightness, the figure abruptly ceased snoring and proceeded to cry out in shock, flailing his arm around and exploding from the bed to fall on the floor with a metallic thud. The being groans as it painfully raises, one hand using the bed as a support while the other clenches his throbbing head. This causes a set of multiple dog tags around its neck to jingle. His name was Dominic "Black-Dog" Gates; however he all and all preferred to be called Dom.

He wasn't what could be called a regular person, be it the dark grey fur that covered the majority of his 6'4'' body, the black, swirling tribal tattoos that adorned the majority of his torso or his _canine head_, complete with a snout roughly 4½ inches long and two triangular, cupped ears that currently lay flattened on his head. He liked to think that the tattoos were what gave him away most of the time. To him, the ability of speech was considered a bonus, but a useful one.

After a few moments, he shakes his head and once standing, begins to stagger towards a door in the room with the word 'Bathroom' printed alongside it. The walls inside the room were practically bleached compared to the previous room. Onto coming into the room, directly in front of him was a regular sink with separate hot and cold handles and a tap in between. Above that was a plain an' simple, average sized, rectangular mirror where the person could see himself from his waist above. Set to the Bathroom's left was a classical, 'western style' toilet while a metal slider door labelled 'shower' was set to the right.

Still cringing from the noise, the being grumbled in a raspy, 'Jane, for the love of God, could you please turn that bloody alarm off.'

'Understood Dominic,' a synthesised, feminine voice replied. Almost instantly, the alarm ceased, causing Dominic's ears to prick up and the vessel to be silent once more silent, save the low hum of electronics running throughout the entirety of the ship.

'Ah, now that's much better. Thanks,' was all Dom said before touching a section of wall, causing a small, dim rectangle of light to appear where he just touched. Immediately after, the area inside the rectangle slid out to reveal a small compartment. He pulled out a toothbrush along with a half-used tube of toothpaste and began brushing his teeth.

'Comments on the alarm today, sir?'

After using a glass of water he had retrieved from another compartment in the wall to clean out his mouth, Dominic replied after spiting the fluids out with, 'well, considering it scared the living shit out of me, it's effective. Also, it didn't blow my ear drums in the process, an appreciated bonus. However, I'm quite sure it's more than possible to find something just a _little_ more…subtle, perhaps?'

'I understand sir, I'll find a more suitable tone,' Jane's disembodied voice replied as Dom exited the bathroom back into his bedroom. Upon opening a cupboard the same way he did the drawers, Jane continued and added, 'also, I believe that it would be wise to man the bridge for this particular section of our charted course.'

Halfway through pulling his pants down, 'Alright, I'll be there shortly,' Dominic replied as he began to make himself more decent.

_**Meanwhile, world side in Equestria…**_

As the sun began to fall lower and lower below the horizon, Princess Celestia looked out beyond her veranda in the Canterlot Palace. She was a stark, white alicorn, standing at roughly 6'4'' with a rainbow coloured mane that was continuously flowing in an invisible ethereal breeze. As a chilled breeze picked up on the balcony, the princess shivered and rubbed her wings against her shivering body. Winter would come early to Equestria this year, meaning that the sun goddess would have more time to herself, with the days being shorter and all. She thought that maybe she could spend time in the royal library and get around to reading some books she had meant to for a while. That is, if any of the nobles would grace her with more than five minutes peace.

As the sun finally set, followed by the blanket of night and stars slowly beginning to appear in the cloudless sky, Celestia was disturbed from deep thought by a set of trotting hooves on the marble floor of the veranda. Turning, she sees her sister, Luna. Luna was noticeably shorter than her sister at 4'6'', had deep, dark blue fur and possessed a mane with darker colour. And while her hair seemed to blow all by itself, it was more deflated than her older sister's.

"Good evening, Luna."

"Good evening to you too, Tia," Luna replied as she walked over to the railing to join her sister. "You did a wonderful job with that sunset."

Smiling, Celestia replied, "and the night already looks beautiful dear sister. Now, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse me; I'm quite weary from my duties and the night feels colder by the minute. I simply wish to retire to my private quarters."

Upon hearing this, Luna's smile dropped to a frown. "But Tia, I only just got here. We barely get to talk to one another at this time of year. Please just stay for a little while longer?"

Celestia sighed at her sister's pleading. "Alright Luna, I'll stay. But I'm still too tired to talk."

Luna's smile replacing her frown, she replied, "That's fine; we can enjoy the night together. Oh, by the way, I'm thinking of having a display of shooting stars tonight."

"Is that so? Well, that sounds wonderful sister, will they come soon."

"They shouldn't be long; they'll start appearing shortly after the night is in full swing."

"Very well, I guess I'll try to stay for the stars."

"Wow, thank you, sister!" Luna cried as she hugged her older sister, both of them laughing under the night sky.

_**Alright, back to the ship…**_

Dom stood on the bridge, in his casual clothes. He was wearing a simple black T-shirt, the imprints of his dog tags visible beneath the clothing, a dark blue pair of jeans and a brow pair of combat boots. Adjusted his dog tags, he then proceeded to survey and study his current surroundings. The bridge wasn't exactly enormous, but it could hold facilities for ten to fifteen people all at once. Opposite of Dom was a large window that spanned the entire front half of the room, providing a view of the lower bow and what lay not far ahead of the ship.

Four or five kilometres ahead of the ship, lay an asteroid field that looked like a massive, sheer, patchy wall of rocks. This ring of massive space rocks is infamous far and wide as a mass graveyard for space farers, the remaining debris of any crashes joining the belt that seems to travel into infinity, making 'Dead Man's Belt' even more treacherous. Even when they may stand a chance, all ships and their crew are said to be doomed as soon as they enter. All that is, save a handful of either skilled or ridiculously lucky pilots that survived and lived to tell the tale. Dominic happened to be a pilot of both skill _and _luck.

_**Ooohh, flashback time! Yay!**_

_Mere months earlier, Dom was running a supply of goods between systems as a favour for a 'good' friend. While having his doubts, he gladly took the job and half the payment as a little 'security measure.' While he had only been in the shipping business, Dom was skilled and wise enough to know to stay far away from 'Dead Man's Belt' as possible. And while the asteroid field was somewhat uncomfortably close to the charted course, there was enough room to avoid it. But before he left, his friend warned him that pirate activity was growing in that area and that he should take an alternate route. As Dominic looked at him in confusion, he explained that 'Dead Man's Belt' had a small 'gap' through which Dom's current transport could fit through with some room although little room for error. After he thanked his friend for the advice, Dom journeyed to the so called 'gap' in the asteroid field. Bracing himself for the risk, Dom ever so slowly manoeuvred his vessel into the space. After reaching midway, he decided that any further into the chaotic cluster could prove fatal, so he drifted with the belt. Some hours and a few close calls later, he reached the point where he could turn off and eventually returned through the mass grave. Silently thanking God, he continued on with his journey and Got the package delivered._

_**A'right, back to the present…**_

Dominic was disturbed from his reminiscing of days long gone by Jane's all too familiar synthetic voice.

"Sir? Would you prefer that I disable auto pilot and allow you manual guidance of the ship?"

After his ears and tail pricked up, he rubbed the back of his neck and replied with, "Maybe in another kilometre or two. Anyway, I'm just going to go back into the cargo bay quickly."

Jane paused before she said, "Understood, sir. Call if you need me."

With that, Dominic turned on his heels and exited the automated sliding door behind him.

**Well, what do you think? Not bad for a fist chapter, right? Anyway, hope you liked it and the next chapter should be out soon if I'm not too busy. Also, I **_**know **_**that the flashback scene could've been done better, but it's just a flashback so sorry anyone who wanted a more descriptive scene, life sucks sometimes. However, I will go further in depth to Dom's background later on in the story so I hope that puts some of you at ease.**

**Oh, and please leave only positive reviews or reviews that may improve the story, otherwise I WILL BE SENDING DEATHSQUADS, no matter which country, alright?**

**Well, see you all next chapter!**


	2. Into the Abyss

**Greetings, fellow surfers of the internet! At last, the next chapter has been completed. Y'see, due to school complications and current things hitting the fan and just causing utter ****chaos for me in general, I've been **_**quite**_** busy. Also, I've been overseas in various countries of Asia which I will not bother to name. But, I know how **_**anxious **_**it can be waiting for the next chapter to come out. So I've decided to, 'cut some corners**_**,**_**' as the**** saying goes. You'll see soon enough, however I don't think it should cause much inconveniences. Anyway, thanks for the helpful advice you guys have been giving me as I greatly appreciate comments & reviews.**

**I DO NOT own MLP: FIM, Hasbro does. Nor do I own**** Gears of War, or Halo, they belong to their respectful owners. I **_**do**_** however own my OC and things not pony related, so no swiping without permission or credit.**

**Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!**

**Chapter 2**

The cargo bay was three levels into the ship, resting in the bottom hull. Needless to say that many of the regular supplies where kept here. Unbeknownst to the regular radar or scanner however, was a trove of something even more valuable to the ship's captain.

When Dominic exited the sliding doors labeled 'Elevator,' he stiffened as he was momentarily engulfed by blackness and near silence, the usually constant hum of electronics seemingly distant now. He shivered, haunted by old memories, and entered the darkness. Seconds later, florescent lights lit up as he made progress through the room, causing him to relax his muscles somewhat. He continued walking past rectangular prism shaped boxes of varying shape and size at a constant pace, putting distance in his strides, towards the opposite end of the room. Upon reaching the void wall, he inspected it, looking for a certain marking. His eyes paused upon an irregularly placed and angled, thick line. Placing his hand over the mark, a dim blue light thinly outlined it momentarily before fading. This was immediately followed by the vertical rising of a section of wall large enough for Dom to enter. There was a surprisingly brightly lit corridor only a few meters long with an unmarked door at the end. Entering the opening, it soon closed behind him. Exiting the corridor, Dom comes into a room with two doors to either side of him. One is labeled 'Armor' to the left, while the one to the right reads 'Load out.' Heading straight for the armory, the door slid into the wall to reveal a small space containing three sets of full body armor supported in a standing position in rounded glass capsules.

_**Hey guy's, I'm just going to step in and break the fourth wall for a minute or two. For the conve**__**n**__**ience of both reader and writer, a description of the armor structure can b**__**e narrowed down to the standard Mjolnir VI body armor from Halo 3 with CoG helmets from GoW. If you don't know what these are or look like…Google image it and use imagination from there, that's all I can say.**_

The left and right sets of armour appeared to be identical to each other, both hanging on racks having the body split at the waist with no visible zip teeth and a coat of grey paint. The only notable difference was in their colour tones. The left one was a lighter tone of grey than the right one; however the grey seemed brighter in more exposed areas, almost white, suggesting that it was probably worn off. 'Should _definitely _give Jack's amour another coat,' Dom mentally noted as he moved to the middle set of armour. This set of armour was considerably different to the ones opposite. The most noticeable thing about it was that the coat of paint was lightened tone of black. Also, while the other two sets had mere cuts and small dents in terms of damage, the middle set and major scars of dulled silver and one or two significantly large dents around the side. The last major difference was the helmet was sectioned off roughly a little lower than where his lips were supposed to be, the visor was thicker and longer than the other helmets and there were two small triangles of malleable armour with the Carbon Fibre fabric where Dom's ears should be.

As he approached the middle capsule, a thin vertical line appeared down the middle of the glass and both halves slid back into the wall. Dom removed his shirt and pants, letting them pile on the floor and equipped his armour with ease. First, he slipped on the torso section like a shirt, tucking in his tail and then pulled up on the armoured leggings. As both sections met, he said, "Seal connection," and both pieces of plated Carbon Fibre began to _merge_ with one another, creating a seamless, singular piece of armour. His suit went all the way up to covering his lower jaw with some plates of armour beneath and around his jaw and fabric. When he finished, Dom took the upper half of his helmet carefully under his arm and strode out of the room.

As the door opened to the empty bridge, Dom was met with Jane's synthesised voice once more, "Sir, we are now half a kilometre away from the belt and steadily approaching."

Dom replied while walking up to a waist height podium, placing his helmet on it, "Don't worry Jane, we still have plenty of breaking room between us and the asteroids. Just switch the controls over to manual and I'll take it from here." At that moment, a yellow, holographic screen appeared at a 45° angle slightly above the podium. It showed a left orthographic view of the ship in the top right corner, a set of rising and falling vertical bars in the left. Below that, was a circular flashing button.

"Whenever you're ready, Sir," was all Jane said in return.

Dom prepared himself for what he must do, _again_. It's been a few years since he even considered retaking this route after the last experience, but his current predicament meant that he had little other choice and a case of the shakes wouldn't help him in any way. Once he hit the button, it momentarily expanded then quickly shrank away. Then two screens faded in from nothingness next to the already existing screen, one to the left and another to the right, both with fist sized, holographic spheres hovering slightly above them.

A second, higher pitched and less detailed synthetic voice said, "Auto-pilot has been disengaged. Manual override protocol at standby phase," thirty seconds later, the hovering orbs went from their default yellow colour to green. "Manual override protocol is now ready. Please interact with the controls to continue."  
Dom reached out to grasp both green orbs with his hands and engulfed them both into his clenched fists.

"Manual override protocol is now active. The pilot now has control of both main engines and secondary stabilizers."

Inhaling and exhaling loudly, Dom says, "_Alright_, you can do this Dom. You've done it before; you can sure as hell do it again." He began shifting into a slightly more manageable position, his legs spreading out a little wider and leaning his shoulders forward. "Jane, try to keep the speed nice and steady. Stick to around 10-15 km/h and notify me when any sizable debris or anything _else_ comes within range of radar. I'm fully aware that piracy has been on the rise lately in this region of the cosmos and I'm not in the mood for a deep space chase right next to the galaxy's biggest, bloody death-trap. Those kinds of events have the tendency to go awry sometimes."  
"Yes sir," Jane simply replied as the electronic hum became louder and much more noticeable. The ship lurched forward slightly as it began to accelerate towards the impending asteroid belt. As the ship continued closer to its destination, Dom constantly adjusted the position of his fists ever so slightly to keep the ship on course. It was smooth sailing for about five minutes before a small, flashing red dot appeared just above the middle holograph-screen. Shortly after this, Jane responded with, "Sir, incoming call from an unknown caller."  
Upon hearing this, Dom stiffened and his eyes widened and thought, 'Oh shit, that's not good.' Beginning to look around the front of the ship, ears swivelling around and looking through the bridge window, hoping to find a hint to the caller's origin, "can you pinpoint the location of the sender?"  
"Yes sir."  
Dom paused and remained still, his hair on end and muscles tightening up as he did so. "Where is he?"  
Before Jane responded, a holographic screen appeared above the middle one. This new screen displaying circular radar covering the majority of the screen with five, red blips appearing at the bottom every time the arm made a rotation over them. "Unfortunately, there's more than one sir. They're 500m from the stern and rapidly approaching us."

Obviously, Dom was somewhat deflated to hear this news as he hung his head and let his shoulders sag and spoke in a tired, depressed manner. "Ah shit, like my plate wasn't already full before these sorry bastards showed up."  
"I'm also detecting the presence of primed weapon systems on all pursuing vessels. Sir, should we engage our primary or secondary weapons?"  
Bringing his head up, Dom brought up a couple of other screens on both sides and began touching various buttons while responding, seeing the red dots slowing down as they neared. His voice rebalanced to a mild grumbling, echoing off the walls of the empty bridge. "I'd honestly like to try and turn these idiots around before they go and do something stupid, like wasting my time. However, could you go and see if Jack is 'awake' yet, I have an ominous feeling that we may inevitably need him in the near future."

"Too late for that, I've already been up for a while now." Before Jane could do anything or respond, another synthesised voice replied Dom. This voice was noticeably deeper than Jane's voice and yet, while deep enough to be recognised as masculine, not deep enough as Dom's and it spoke in a wider variety of tones that had an an informal feel to it. As a result, it was pretty much sounding and acting much more human than Jane. "So, we're on a direct course into the galaxies' deadliest asteroid field, carrying a shipment that apparently consists mainly of armaments and a couple of vehicles, as a group of space punks armed with what look like floating scrap-metal in the shape of ships are coming up from the rear and are probably trying to rob or kill us."

Dom replied with a toothy grin on his face, revealing the majority of his foremost canine teeth along with some molars towards the back of the jaw, "heh, just like every average day of cruising through the endless cosmos. Now, as much as I would want to blabber the time away with you, I'm going to have to ask you to shut up temporarily as I deal with our new arrivals."

Saying this, Dom reached out and with his finger, taped a glowing button on the mid-left screen, comically followed by the sound of an old fashioned phone ringing. After a few rings, the noise was suddenly replaced with an over the top voice that drastically changed octave every few words or so, like a teenager's voice constantly breaking but with an older ring to it.  
"Hey, wazzup my compadre? I was worried you were trying to attack or some shit, y'know?"

It practically took almost all of Doms physical being to prevent him from blowing up those ships up right there and then. His entire body tensed, all of his hair stood on end and his ears flattened as he obtained a look so murderous it would make a grown man lose all bowel in mere seconds. 'Easy Dom, don't go making the situation worse. For all you know, he's just lost and asking for directions.' His jaw clenched, Dom responded in a forced, strained polite voice, his octave and body posture although remained the same,  
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that, the old gal can have tantrums sometimes and makes things difficult for me. So, what're you doing this far out of civilisation? No offence meant, but you guys don't seem to be packing the firepower for a supply run or escort."

A short laugh could be here through the static of the radio, "too true man, too true. You're right; me an' my crew aren't here for any of that bull. See, we're hunting this psychotic douchebag that apparently hangs around in this dark corner of space. But to be honest, I don't blame the poor bastard. After all, 750 grand can go a _long _way in this day and age, y'know what I'm saying man?" The man on the other man laughed while Dom was sweating and twitching from what he just heard, practically screaming in his mind. '_750 G? _How the _frickin'_ _hell_ did it go up so damn fast? Those assholes must be more desperate to get my hide back than I thought.'  
He replied with only a hint of shakiness in his voice, a small trickle of sweat rolled down his grey snout. "Yeah uhh, th-that would go pretty damn far."

The other man replied in a more concerned manner, "Hey uh, dude, you alright? You don't sound so good, like you're sick or someth-," the voice that Dom had recently come to loath had suddenly stopped, but he could tell that the communication link was still transmitting from the audible sound of hushed and exasperated whispering with background static, rendering any dialogue intelligible despite his adept hearing.

Slowly, the tension rising with the passing of each second, he reached out with his left hand to the left hand side of the podium to rotate a panel out, littered with various buttons and most distinguishably a big red button on the mid most-left of the panel. The smaller buttons were grouped with a different label and each group shared a unique button colour, mainly for the sake of simplicity. One group was labelled 'Missiles' and coloured green, another group of yellow buttons were labelled 'countermeasures' and the final group of 8 red buttons were labelled 'Boost – Use With Caution.' Strangely, only the first 5 of the total 8 buttons were lit with a faint light. Still moving slowly, Dom moved his hand and stopped to let his fuzzy finger to hover over a 'Missile' button, all the while trying to listen to the conversation occurring on the other side of the intercom. His lips were twitching open constantly, bearing some of his intimidating front canine teeth due to his thinning patience and his ears were even beginning to flatten against his head while staring at the radar, keeping an eye on the blinking red dots that were his suspicious guests.

Suddenly, the other man's voice over the radio broke through the increasing anxiety, "oh uh, sorry man. You're still there, right? My crew was just tellin' me about this transmission they intercepted. Apparently, that goldmine of a dude I was talking about is hanging out round this neighbourhood."

As soon as the man started talking, Dominic stopped growling while the rest of his composure remained the same, pondering this stoner's new found knowledge. There was an honest tone of curiosity in his voice when Dom replied. How had he been found so quickly? He swept the entire vessel upon arrival and departure and made sure to lift off immediately after entering his ship. Had he missed a spot during the sweep? Did someone tag him on the way out? Either way, it could wait. He'd have plenty of time to check later once the current problem was dealt with. "Is that so? How interesting. " He paused like he was waiting for the other pilot to continue, but interjected before the man could get a word out. "Oh you know, I actually recall seeing an ominous ship, surprisingly similar to my own vessel. In fact he managed to give me a message." The smallest of smirks developed on his canine face as his hand steadily moved from the missile button to one of the illuminated 'Boost' buttons. Dom could imagine the nameless man's eyes grow wide with surprise and disbelief, then leaning in closer practically like an excited, oversized child talking over the phone.

"Whoa dude, that's way awesome! C'mon man what did he say, what'd he say?" The radio man's voice was filled with excitement and anticipation.

Obviously he was naive with youth and barely knows anything about 'The Black Dog' except his price tag, otherwise he would be telling everyone to arm up and start shooting or run, all the smart ones in this situation always run and live. Others, like the current young wannabe behind Dom, weren't as lucky to be blessed with the gift of intelligence and did things like this.

Dominic's tiny smirk became a large, tooth filled grin as he clenched his hand into a fist right over the 'Boost' button, replying with, "He said _**smoke my fumes ya bunch of stoned, hippy moth**__**a**__**fuckaaaas**_!" With that, he brought his fist down like a hammer on the button, causing the ship's once steady low humming to become three times as loud and shoot forward towards 'Dead Man's Belt' at concerning speeds.

**Aaand that's a wrap! Whew, that took longer than I first anticipated.**

**So this chapter ended on a cliff hanger, I know but in my defence I ****wanted to go further, so no ha****t****ing.**

**Anyway, I have a proposition to any artists or anyone who has connections with an artist. As you all should know well by this point of time, a recent feature has been added to FanFiction called 'Image Manager,' allowing ****the ability to upload various pictures to one's account and use them either as a profile picture or a story cover. I'd add one myself, but I have neither the skill nor time to attempt such a feat. So in my time of need, I'm reaching out to you, the readers****, to help in sol****v****ing this complication.**

**All you need to do is draw a suitable picture that can be used as the future cover, it could be Do****m****inic, the ship or something else related that would be ideal. Just send the link of your picture, or an artist's pict****ure with their previously confirmed consent through a PM and you could be in the running to have said picture used as the new ****c****over for the story! Yay!**

**There's also the constellation prize of sending in a photo, but not achieving the cover status. The links**** to these entries will be shown in the next chapter. However, the winner will receive the priv****i****lege of earning a preview of the next upcoming chapt****er (once a decent amount is completed****)!**

**If you need more information simply send me a PM concerning details, for example if you require a more detailed description of Dom or the ship. As for the armour, I've purposely left some room for creativity in terms of detailed shape, so be creative! Also, try to store the picture on a site that doesn't require me to create an account in order to view the artwork; it just makes things so much easier. For preferable picture size, consolidate the 'Image Manager' for ideal sizes if you're unsure.**

**Well, that's all from me for now. Please remember to leave a review once you've finished reading, I really appreciate those, and I anticipate the future art to come.**

**Until next time my friends, Goodnight! **

***Audience applaud as credits roll* **


	3. Asteroids Reloaded

Chapter 3

**Helloooooo, people! I'm not dead = D! ****Just weighed down by the massive amount of school ****work I've**** been getting recently. So yes, here is the much anticipated chapter three! I'm **_**so sorry**_** for the ridiculously late update but there is a reasonable explanation. ****  
I've got a Beta! That's right, my writing has been edited (twice, I might add) by the wonderful ****Clara Lockhart. So, everyone giv****e h****er a big round of applause… or something. **

**Anyway, enough shenanigans! On with the story! **

The dramatic increase of speed caused blood to flow up to Dominic's head and adrenalin to begin pumping through his veins. The expression that was currently plastered to his face could be described by some as unhinged. A huge, toothy grin stretched across his muzzle, accompanied by his large eyes filled with delight and anticipation. Feeling the simulated ecstasy and anxiety of the chase flow through him again after so long, it was almost impossible for Dom to resist crying out in delight with a, "_W__ooohooo_!"

The amateur bounty hunters were completely dumbfounded to say the least. They knew the man had a screw loose, but no one was insane enough or had the balls to go into the universe's largest asteroid belt and expect to live.

After recovering from the shock, the man who was previously talking over the radio with the mysterious wanted man paused, his and his comrades' ships remaining in neutral, as if to symbolise him blinking a few times in disbelief and trying to figure out what the royal fuck was going on. Once he regained his senses, the target ship was almost at the asteroid belt, flying ever closer to the imaginary gaping maw waiting to swallow it whole. He spoke into his ship's communications to 'rally the troops' as best he could. He rushed the last part of the sentence however as he fired his engines. "Um, well then…The guy who takes him down gets the largest share!" With that, he zoomed off after Dom's ship, following the craft on what was essentially viewed by society as the act of a desperate man.

The previous transmission, promising the reward of even more money than what was previously agreed upon, snapped the remaining space punks out of their trance and panicked them into zooming off, yelling in pursuit of their future pay-check.

Back on Dominic's ship, he had just recovered from the initial high of his sudden adrenaline rush and had begun to think clearly once again, his face returning to a look of utter discipline. Dead Man's Belt was almost upon him, so he had to act fast to avoid any potential catastrophes. While it was true that Dom had taken this particular course before, things could have changed and surviving the first time was due mostly to his previous small, manoeuvrable vessel and sheer dumb luck. Luckily, he had a plan to make this crossing possibly easier as he intended to go _through _the deadly asteroids and debris, not hitch a ride on them like last time. That option went out the window as soon as his unexpected guests showed up and crashed the party_._

So, as the great wall of floating space rocks loomed in front of Dominic's ship, being tiny in comparison to the sheer mass of it, the pilot pivoted another panel from just underneath the podium to its right. This particular panel was not littered with as many buttons as the one on the left. Instead, it just had the label 'Turrets' with a few groups of buttons underneath. He then proceeded to press several buttons, each from a different group; all but two of them were labelled 'Auto-Mode.'

As Dom did this, on the ship's exterior, six large blast doors opened, each revealing a large turret rising out of the darkness. There were two turrets along the top and bottom sides of the hull, and another two on both outer sides and forward end of the engine.

Once the turrets had finished forming themselves, Dom gave his crew their next orders in a more collected voice than what he was feeling. If anyone else was present, they would have been able to pick up an a American accent that seemed slightly warped in the way it was spoken, concluding that although it was quite similar, it wasn't exact either. "Jane, I'm putting you in charge of navigation make sure we're staying on the planned course and _not_ in circles."

In her default, ever neutral voice, Jane replied, "Yes sir, I'll do my best."

Dom quickly nodded his head once in acknowledgement before continuing. "Jack, take control of the two side turrets and watch our six. They get close, take 'em down."

Jack could be heard chuckling over the intercom, "Finally, it's about time I was able to do something in this place. Hope my aim hasn't gotten rusty."

"Hmm, so do I," Dom retorted with a smirk.

Dom tapped a button with his gloved finger that brought up a holographic copy of a pilot's joystick.

Before he could reach for it however, Jack spoke up. "Dom, wait. I know you're good, but even _you_ can't navigate through here _and _blow up incoming asteroids at the same time."

"Oh, come on Jack, don't ya have any faith in me? I'm pretty sure I can handle a little multi-tasking."

Jack retorted with a tone of frustration and anger in his voice, "How about multi-tasking under fire?"

Ignorant to his companion's concern, Dominic waved off his comment like it was an annoying fly and clasped the joystick anyway, his gloved armour hand locking just on the hologram's outline.

"Alright then ya bunch of inanimate; floating pieces of space rock, let's _tango_!"

Finally having made progress a decent distance into the belt, the space around both Dominic and his pursuer's ships began to slowly fill with decent-sized asteroids. The ship was going quite fast however, causing brown-grey blurs to pass by the glass blast shield.

Dom ducked away in fright and cried out, "Whoa, shit! Slow us down Jane, slow us down!"

The erratically loud humming produced from the inner workings of the ship quietened almost immediately afterward, "The engine has decelerated to an ideal speed, sir."

"Phew, now that was clo-"

Dom was interrupted as Jane suddenly yelled out, "Asteroids rapidly approaching the port side!" A chaotic beeping started up from the control panel.

Dom whipped the joystick to the left with lightening reflexes, and pressing the fire button once the sights were lined up with the incoming rocks. All four turrets blazed away, pumping out hundreds of 40mm artillery rounds at incredible speeds and made short work of the asteroids. Whatever small debris that wasn't vaporised harmlessly clanged off the ship's strong metal hull.

The process of Jane calling out viable threats and Dom blasting them to smithereens continued up to the point where Dom would just blast any asteroid that was in front of him and within range and Jane focused on navigating past larger asteroids.

The bounty hunters unfortunately only had a fraction more luck with the situation than the space debris; they had still yet to all be blown up. When they had entered the asteroid belt in pursuit of their target, manoeuvring around the rocks and maintaining a decent speed became a problem. At least until the ship's speed decreased dramatically, allowing the small, nimble crafts to catch up.

The men believed they had cornered their prey like a helpless mouse. They did not however expect said mouse to have two 'dome' side turrets adorning each engine. They remained unnoticed at first but quickly made their presence known. Hot lead spewed from the guns barrels, tearing apart one of the ships that had gotten too close. The other ships scattered like insects and sought cover among the surrounding asteroids.

On the bridge of Dominic's ship, Jack enthusiastically proclaimed his latest kill, "One down!"

Dom was visibly impressed by the news. "Hey, not bad buddy! Good to see that you've still got it. What're they doing back there now?"

"Hiding and shitting themselves, from the looks of it. I can't pick them up on the radar, too much physical interference."

"Damn it. Well, we've been screwing around with these assholes for long enough. It's time to hightail it out of here."

Dom's cruiser pulled a 360 in the confined space created by the turrets and started towards a gap through to the other side. Dom was so focused on the path ahead however, that he didn't notice the ship hiding on the underside on an asteroid watching and waiting. The ship was just exiting the clearing when alarms started blaring in Dominic's ear accompanied by a voice repetitively saying, "Warning, enemy missile lock. Warning, enemy missile lock." Dom looked at the radar, seeing the bottom section of the outer border flashing red. "What the fu-," about half way through the last word when a sudden impact, followed by the faint sound of an explosion tearing metal, jarred the ship.

It threw Dom slightly off balance and alarms started blaring. Dom shouted as he grabbed the turret controls and violently yanked it to the side, "Oh, that motherfucker!" He proceeded to shoot anything that resembled a ship in the general direction of the shooter. The enemy ship and any asteroids surrounding it where shredded to nothing, the guns once again roared to life, breathing fire and ejecting a ridiculous amount of shells. Dom released his vice-like grip on the hologram and retuned his attention to the screens. "Right, now that that's taken care of let's get the hell out of here."

After some time and a minimal effort, the number of asteroids had finally began to thin around Dominic's cruiser. While barely noticeable, it allowed Dom to discover that this harrowing journey was nearing its end. Jane interrupted his little moment with, "Sir, look out!" Dom managed veer out of the path of a massive asteroid surging in from the side, but unwittingly clashed the ship's underside into another yet smaller rock.

"Shit, that's gonna dent," he cursed as he corrected their course.

An uneventful twenty minutes later, the cruiser had cleared the deadly belt at last. "Yeah, we made it, woohoo!" Jack celebrated as Dom cracked a smile and gave a cheer of his own.

"Yeah, knew a bunch of armatures couldn't take us out!"

"Well, they did manage to hit you." Jack pointed out, making a little happiness inside of Dom die.

"_Us_, they managed to hit us. Speaking of plurals, what were you doing? Looking at all of the pretty rocks?"

"Me? _I _was making sure the others didn't try to ambush us."

"Yeah, great job you did there. Would've felt safer being covered by a blind rapist." Dom scoffed.

"Hey, he got a lucky shot." Jack protested.

"Lucky shot? _Lucky shot_? You were looking directly at the guy, you have no excuse."

"Gentlemen, please," Jane butted in, in an attempt to quell the petty rivalry, "Let's all be civil, proper adults and see to the damages."

The two stopped their bickering and simultaneously agreed with a disgruntled, "Fine."

Dom enlarged the already existing image of the ship with his free hand and quickly looked over it. Dom spoke with a frown while nervously scratching the back of his ear. "Yeah, that last hit was lucky after all. Well, lucky for them at least. That asshole managed to critically damage the port engine and got a few rounds off on the rear hull, that'll definitely need some patching up. Can you see exactly what's broken Jane?"

"Unfortunately, my sensors have been destroyed by the blast. I cannot tell exactly what is damaged."

Sighing, Dom tapped a large button on one of the screens, switching back to auto-pilot. Once the controls faded he grabbed the upper section of his helmet, which had amazingly remained upon the podium throughout the entire ordeal. "Alright, I'll go check it out. Keep me updated on any developments through comms." With that, Dom exited the bridge as he clasped his faceplate on, causing it to hiss as it airlocked.

Traveling through the tight corridors of the ship, Dominic eventually came upon the engine. The door omitted a red hue form the overhead light. "Jane, open the door." The air was sucked out after the door opened. Thankfully, Dom's boots were magnetised so he remained planted on the floor. He yanked his boot off the floor and placed in front of him, and slowly progressed through the remains. It was utterly silent save the sound of his footsteps and his loud breathing inside his helmet. Shards of metal sparkled as they caught the light of a nearby sun, making a dazzling small scale light show. Dom steadily pushed his way through the floating pieces of debris and stopped nearby a few circuitry consoles mounted on the intact section of wall.

He opened each one individually, then radioed Jane saying, "Hey Jane, do we have any spares of the following…" He then recited a lengthy list of the damaged circuitry. By the time he had finished listing all the broken electronics, it turns out that only half of the things he needed were on the ship. In short, the damaged engine was barely operable and provided little to no thrust. While Dom was content that a fuel line wasn't hit in the encounter, he still grumbled and swore under his breath for having sustained so much damage. He slammed the consoles shut and walked back to the door, the vacuum temporarily taking effect as he re-entered the ship.

Dom removed his helmet on the way back to the bridge, troubled by the new found knowledge. The ship had to be in peak condition if he wanted to return through Dead Man's Belt. Otherwise he wouldn't last ten minutes in there. His oxygen and food could last for a month or two at most, and his ship was in no condition to land on any planet he could get to. Of course, would he desperately need to return to the other side of the belt, a distress signal could always be easily arranged. From there, hijacking the rescue vessel and salvaging it for parts would be no problem. At least it would be if they could get past the damn space rocks.

"Sir, the path ahead seems clear for now; do wish to retire to your quarters while I pilot the ship?" Jane broke Dominic's concentration once again, causing him to look up at the invisible voice of his companion. Taking in his surroundings, he also noticed he had conveniently ended up right outside his quarters.

"Yeah, maintain our current course for now. I'm going to take a quick lie down." Dom entered his room, headed directly to his bed and flopped down onto it in full armour. He dozed off minutes after hitting the pillow.

**Now, was that awesome or **_**was that awesome!? **_**Tell me what you guys thought and any improvements you believe can be made.**

**Also, I'm still waiting on a story cover. If you're wondering why I want one so bad is so you guys can get better visuals of some things in the story, also it looks cool.**

**Anyway, spread the existence of this tale to the furthest ends of the Earth! Tell your friends to tell their friends about this story!**

**And finally, stay tuned for the next chapter, hopefully it won't take as long.**

**P.S. For those who are interested, I'll try to get Dom Equestria side next chapter if I can. We'll see how things go.**

**See Ya!**


	4. Falling is easy

Chapter 4

**Hey guys, I'm not dead! I know it's been a long time since the last update, but I can ****assure**** you all there's good reason behind it. I've been studying other stories and ****taking different approaches and strategies to discover an effective way of writing (namely actually **_**planning **_**ahead with my chapters) while keeping up with my studies. So don't worry the story isn't dead, just considerably slow. I'm currently working on the**** next chapter as we speak, however exams have reared their ugly head. So unfortunately, I must divert my attention once again. I can only hope this chapter can keep you interested a little bit longer.**

Dominic's mildly damaged ship was floating silently through the deep recesses of space. Jane had altered their course slightly to remain within a decent distance of Dead Man's Belt, should any technical difficulties force them back to civilisation. The captain was once again snoring the time away, dreaming a peculiar dream;

_Dominic was sitting in a windowless helicopter, wearing his standard marine body armour that consisted of a Kevlar vest, regular helmet and fatigues. He could feel bare skin beneath the clothing and was clutching an M16 assault rifle in one hand and fiddled with his tags using the other. Looking up, he saw the craft was filled with soldiers wearing similar attire and possessing the same weapons. Their helmets were on and darkness shrouded their faces making it hard to distinguish any one. For a second the sound of static and visuals of disfigured shapes clouded his senses, which then abruptly stopped as a soldier rose to speak._

"_Right ladies, listen up. Word on the ground is, the drop off gonna be fuckin' hot. So when you get off and start running, don't stop 'till you get to cover. We clear?"_

_A chorus of "Houaa!" resounded throughout the cabin._

_After a few minutes of waiting, the cabin was somewhat illuminated by a red light, followed by a shrill _bzzzzttt_!_

"_Ready up!" Everyone stood up and turned to face the aircraft's rear. It wasn't long until Dom heard muffled gunfire hitting the hull along with something else. One of the pilots in the cockpit shouted "RPG! Hang o-"_

_The scene was interrupted by the strange static again, strange shapes and numbers appearing before Dominic's eyes. Seconds passed, and the static was gone. It was replaced by a bright light, which soon clarified to a clouded, blue sky. Suddenly, a man's face appeared over him. It was mostly obstructed by his helmet's black visor, but Dom could distinguish a scar along his cracked lips._

"_Good to see you're alive, brother!"_

_Dominic tried to respond, but seemed unable to._

"_Word of advice for you, don't try getting up just yet. Boys think the LZ's still hot."_

_The ear splitting crack of a rifle sounded not far off, followed by the all too familiar sound of rifle fire. _

_The familiar man held out a rifle to Dom. "Here, managed to grab this out of the wreck." The man jerked his head behind him as he spoke._

_Dominic took the rifle and turned his head to look past the man. The smouldering, broken wreck of the helicopter lay dead like a great, metal beast. The vehicle's corpse rested among a small formation of boulders, ridden with bullet holes and a large puncture in its hull._

_A second sniper shot rang out, the bullet ricocheting off the rocky terrain centimetres from his face._

"_Shit!" The man crouched as the marines returned fire. He hooked his arms under Dom's armpits and started dragging him away. "C'mon, let's get out of here."_

_The same strange static appeared again, this time for what seemed like hours. The world finally returned, flooding Dom's vision with light. He looked across a vast mountain range; stacks of smoke rose from the ground and tainted the sky. The constant cracks and bursts of rifle fire echoed off the many rock faces._

"_I think we're gonna be here a little longer than a few days." The voice was deep, ragged, and caught him off guard. It was familiar and he tried to remember where he had heard such a voice before. Suddenly, he realised where he was. And he remembered whose voice it was._

_It was his._

Dominic woke with a gasp, and was met with darkness, sweat and blinding pain. He clutched his head as it felt like someone had been whacking it with a sledgehammer. Groaning, he lumbered over to the bathroom and filled a glass of water. He gulped it down in one go, and then filled the glass again. Instead of drinking it, he dumped the water over his head. He sat on the floor and leaned against the wall, panting and feeling the cool liquid seeping down beneath his armour.

"Was it another bad dream, sir?" Jane's voice rang out, breaking Dom somewhat out of his stupor.

Dom simply grunted his response. "…Yeah. Bad dream." Dom closed his eyes as his heart beat slowed; his once rapid, raggedy breathing had calmed. He simply listened to the soft vibrations of the ship and let everything go numb.

As Dom began to enter the merciful realm of unconsciousness, a soft, metallic groan caused him to frown. He concentrated, trying to find the source. It happened again, this time louder and longer. The ship abruptly lurched, throwing Dom flat on his face. "Jane, the _fuck _was that?"

"Sir, you're needed at the bridge immediately!" Jane's voice seemed strained, making Dom's hair stand on end.

Dom scrambled up and rushed out of his room, grabbing his helmet as he did so, and hurtled down the dull grey corridors.

The bridge doors slid open and Dom stumbled through unto the chaos that was unfolding before him.

"Statu– sweet space shit!"

Lights were flashing, alarms were bleeping and a small of sizable asteroids were following uncomfortably close. But Dom didn't see this. He was just staring, jaw agape, at the approaching planet. The giant sphere had a sizable amount of it coloured blue, quite like Earth. From this view of the planet he could also see decently large land masses. Again, just like Earth. But what really boggled his mind was that said land masses were partially coloured green. _Green_. That could only mean one of three things; it's either gas, a trick of the light, or… "Jane, is that vegetation?"

"Scanning…" There was a pause as the AI scanned the planet, then an answer. "The shades of green are confirmed as living vegetation."

Only one thing ran through his mind at that moment. "I just discovered alien life. Holy shit, I found alien life."

Once again the ship lurched and Dom was sent flying into the large viewing window with a smack. He then slid off the window and clanged face-up on the deck. "Priorities, Dom, priorities." Feeling like an unfortunate fly, he managed to groan through the immense pain, "Alright Jane seriously, the fucking hell was that?"

"It would appear, sir, that an abnormally large gravitational pull is being generated from the nearby planet."

Dom had shrugged off most of the pain and had made his way over to the podium, upon which he started opening yellow status screens. "How strong we talking?"

"The vessel is currently accelerating at a constant speed of approximately 4500 km per minute, the speed increasing as we near the planet."

"Oh _fuck_ no. I may be crazy but I'm _not _landing on that planet this fast." As he brought up the ship controls, Dom attempted to pull away from the mysterious force, or at least decrease his speed. He made progress for about thirty seconds before the ship was tugged violently, rendering his efforts useless. He had barely managed to stay upright during the sudden jolt as the podium caught Dom as he fell.

"It would appear that the current maximum engine output is insufficient to break away from the unknown force."

Frowning, Dom scratched behind his ear, his irritation beginning to build as he racked his mind for an explanation. "Could it be something like a magnet or tractor beam?"

"The origin of the force is currently undiscernible sir. All logical theories do not match current criteria or circumstances."

"Tch, there goes the jamming option. What's the advisable course of action?"

Jane briefly paused before she replied, "Prepare for emergency landing."

Sighing, Dom once again attached his helmet, then heard the locking click and felt the air inside pressurise. "Let's get on with it, then."

With a few hand gestures, Dom had brought up a live feed of the approaching planet and a keyboard. He typed furiously as small screens popped up yellow then vanished in a shade of red. All throughout the ship various hatches, doorways and windows were individually slamming shut and locking. Eventually a massive blast shield slid over the bridge viewing port, sealing off with a loud clank. A few artificial lights came on, but the bridge was still somewhat dim. This was soon fixed as Dom enlarged the planet live-feed to accommodate the now shielded window. It conveniently and effectively lit up the surroundings also.

And so with flying controls now in hand, the pilot muttered prayers under his breath and prepared for the descent. "This part's gonna hurt."

_**Planet side…**_

"Wow." Celestia voiced her awe as she and her sister looked on at the display above. The meteorite shower was truly something to behold. All across the sky, thin streaks of light appeared and vanished in the blink of an eye. To those who could see them, it seemed like some swarm of fireflies traversing the night sky. At Canterlot, they appeared vertically right above the nobles and royalty only to vanish in the distance. As all this transpired, the other stars twinkled in the background.

Even Luna, princess of the night, admitted it was impressive.

Celestia smiled as she nuzzled her sister affectionately. "Thank you Lulu, this is wonderful. It's a relief to take a break from routines."

Luna nodded. "I agree. We must try and make time to do this again. Just sitting out here and talking to one another, it really helps me relax."

A smile grew on Celestia's face. "Well, with winter quickly approaching, I'm sure the nobles will all be sheltering in their houses. This should grace us with some peace for the season and give us time to-" She stopped as she noticed a faint rumbling sound.

"Sister, what – what is that sound?"

"I don't know, but it does not bode well."

The ruler stood and had begun craning her neck, searching for the source of the sound. The noise grew louder and louder, yet no there was no sign of the cause. Soon, she noticed a light softly glow upon the land below her. It slowly yet steadily brightened with every second. Suddenly, a large comet appeared above the castle heading north-east roaring like an angry dragon. Both princesses watched with awe as the meteor soared above them and vanished over the horizon. A sound akin to rolling thunder followed soon afterwards, signalling its impact.

The sisters just stood in stunned, motionless silence with their mouths agape. Luna was the first to break the silence.

Her voice was small and quiet, "Tia, what was that?"

Celestia was racking her brain for an answer to that very question, mumbling her thoughts aloud. "What exactly _was _that? That couldn't have been a normal meteor; it would've burned up in the atmosphere. That means…" In her mind, confusion had morphed into panic.

"Luna, find Captain Armour and tell him to send our fastest guard-ponies to scout the impact site."

Luna stood in alarm of her sister's words, "Why sister, isn't it just a large rock?"

"Because sister," the sun princess turned to face her with a grim face, "_that _was no rock."

The younger sister gasped and raised a hoof to her mouth in shock. "Should we gather the Elements also?"

Celestia turned and began heading back into her room. Luna followed her hastily. "They may not be needed, but we should call them here just to be safe."

Luna halted in her tracks. "Do you know what it_ is_?"

Sighing, the elder turned and replied with, "To be honest, dear sister, I have no idea."

_**The Ship – Unknown Location…**_

Darkness, all he could see was black, cold darkness. In the darkness he heard noises; shouting, screaming and the faint sounds of gunfire. The sounds slowly faded away to silence, leaving Dominic once again in the dark. Suddenly, pain pierced his senses and causing him to groan. Opening his eyes slowly, he began to take in his surroundings. He was still on the bridge, but it was dark and the angle seemed off somehow. Some panels had fallen off the wall and wires were protruding from the gaps. Some were intact; others had separated and occasionally sparked electricity. He could hear broken glass shift and crunch as he tried to get up. Standing stiffly, Dom quickly realised that the crash had flung him across the room. "Thank god for this armour." After testing his limbs, it appeared that nothing serious had happened to his bones. He then decided that it was about time to take care of more important things. "Jane! Can you hear me?!" A flickering of light appeared at the podium, to which Dom scrambled. Reaching the podium, he touched a glowing shape on the screen. There was a whirring sound as little white lights illuminated the room.

"Emergency generator online. Current power output at 35 precent. Current generator inertia: 0km/h. An immediate jumpstart is advised."

Dominic grunted annoyed by the fact that a jumpstart was near impossible in those conditions. As risky as it was, he may very well have need to call for help. But, not before taking a quick look around. "Jane, can you raise the bridge blast shield?"

There was a clank, followed by the grinding of metal against metal followed by the occasional spark. Light flooded the room as the metal slab rose higher. Where it not for the helmet that he wore, Dom's Jaw would be hanging open at the sight that greeted him.

"Mother of God…"

**Alright people, that'll do for now. I have to start burying myself in studies and essays for the next couple of weeks. Don't forget to favo****urite, follow and review!**


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